THE Canal & River Trust want us to give them money but they still cut down our access and manoeuvrability, writes Keith Gudgin.

I have to agree with those who say they will not give CaRT the extra month's licence money.

Ask for another donation

From what the prime minister has said, I can see another three weeks of lockdown taking us to the end of May. They will then owe us another months licence fee, will we get that as well? And will they have the audacity ask for it back as a donation again?

I have yet to find another such bunch as CaRT when working with us boaters . They seem to think we are all nursery children in the way they treat and speak to us, so they shouldn't be surprised when we tell them what we think of them. And my full description would be/is unprintable!

Ignore us

They ignore us, treat us with contempt, fleece us of all they can get, deny us proper working equipment, remove facilities, put us into danger and still expect us to applaud them, support them and freely hand over money willy nilly. What planet do they live on? It certainly doesn't appear to be the same one as the rest of us!

One has to wonder, how many of the CaRT directors and managers have volunteered to take a pay cut to help out with the finances? Not heard anything about that, has any one else?

Change attitude

If CaRT want me, and I hope all boaters, to give them anything voluntarily they will need to fundamentally change their attitude towards us in a major way. This pandemic situation has shown us boaters CaRT's real colours and they are all dark.

Well, in old navy speak, my 'colours are nailed to the mast' when it comes to me giving them a freebie (or surrendering my colours). Not a hope in hell! Now loading up for another broadside, when they come out with their next dumb suggestion or money wasting scheme...